How hard is it to put a 97-02 dash into a 96 Camaro?

How do you take the part of the dash with the airbag out?

I'm very nervous about the airbag blowing up in my face when I try to take the dash apart. Someone told me to take the airbag fuse out or disconnect the battery or something? I don't quite remember.

Also, if I didn't change the dash over but I did put a 97-02 center console in how would that look? I think I recall there is a gap but I don't remember how bad it looked. If anyone has any pictures please post them!

I would like to change my interior over to a black leather interior out of a 97-02 Camaro or Firebird. I am not the person who originally painted my interior and it's not in good shape any more and it really detracts from the car. I always wanted a black leather interior and I hope to find a wrecked 97-02 f-bod one of these days with a nice black leather interior for cheap to take the entire interior out of or something.

 

Yes, there's a gap if you put a newer console under the older dash. I've seen it, and it doesn't really look that bad. I can't even begin to remember where the picture of it might be.

For removing the dash, as long as you disconnect the battery and leave it disconnected for a little while (I think about ten minutes) then you don't have to worry about the airbags blowing up. The seats are as easy as it gets. They're a direct swap, and just four bolts a piece for the fronts, one bolt each for the rear cushions, and I think only two bolts for the rear backrest.

 

I have a 94 Z-28 and did a complete interior conversion except for the dash. My car had a tan cloth interior and I installed a 02 Trans Am WS-6 black leather interior including TA door panels and console. I left the orginal dash in place as I did not want to mess with the wiring and fitment issues. The interior turned out great and I am very happy with. I had no real issues with the conversion. I am not sure how to post pictures, or I would post the pics of my interior.

 

I would really like to see pics of that! That's ideally pretty much what I'd like to do I use http://photobucket.com/

Photobucket is free and super easy.. if you upload the images from your comp onto photobucket it gives four choices underneath your pictures to share them.. just copy the IMG CODE to your post.. which is really just [img]linktoimage[/img] written in your post.

I really do like TA doors and seats better. You say the door panels were easy to swap? Did you have to do anything special?

I was considering getting the light gray parts of my seats dyed to black too.. especially if I ended up with a Camaro interior cuz I do prefer the TA seats.

About the fitment.. I'm not sure if the dash "frame" or whatever that you screw/bolt the dash pieces into would be the same between the different years? If it's not and I can't use the same screw holes then I will probably want to leave the dash as being from a 93-96.. just black.

I would still wanna change the door panels, center console, carpet, headliner, and a lot of the other interior panels. I could probably find some paint stripper for plastic for the dash cuz the dash is not in as bad of shape as a lot of the other interior parts it's just not the right color.. I'd hope the original color of it matched the dark gray/black of other years well enough.. it appears the interior of my car was originally a mix of medium gray and black but I think the dash itself was all dark colored.. the paint on the steering wheel looks pretty bad so I'd hope stripping it would be okay otherwise I have no idea how to change the steering wheel out? Is there a special tool?

 

I did T/A door panels in my '93 Camaro. It's pretty much a direct swap if you have power windows already. If you don't have power windows, you'll need to convert to them. The T/A door panels just don't have the space on the panel for a window crank.

Yes, there is a special tool for pulling the steering wheel. It's called, get ready for it, a steering wheel puller. You can "rent" them at Auto Zone, Advance Auto, etc. for basically free. They aren't that hard to use. I had to pull the steering wheel on my '93 to replace the ignition switch. Takes about a half hour to get the wheel off and back on. Watch out for those horn buttons!

 

Hey,
Thanks for the info on posting pics. Here are some pics of my interior.

 

Wow that looks great!! Did you get the interior out of a wrecked 02 Firebird?

 

Yeah, found all the parts on Ebay out of a wrecked 02 WS-6 TA.

 

What is that little display that you have installed into the top right air vent?

 

looks like a scanmaster lt1
I also want to add that as long as you disconnect the battery and then hold both the positive and negative battery cables together it will bleed out the capacitors quicker so you don't have to wait 10 mins.

 

yeah, it is an LT1 Scanmaster. I really like it. It has many different functions and parameters to get information on, it it looks cool too.

 

Sheila, I just put fierbird seats in my 98 camaro. I had tan interior but I did a complete swap, top headliner to bottom carpet. It is ebony now with custom painted door panels center console gauge bezel and dash glove box and radio bezel. My friend gave the interior to me and I bought mint cloth black firebird seats from junk yard. His dash is custom painted also. I want to put it in my car also but it is so much work. I tried to take a 2000 dash out of a z28 at the junk yard and it was a nightmare, then imagine having to put it all back. So I will never swap out dashes. You can swap yours for 98 and up but it is alot of work. they have a write up on ls1tech.com but me having tried it already I will never do it. your steering wheel can be swapped easily. if you can find a you pull it junk yard you can get all parts cheap. You can sand your dash, prime it and then repaint it black. My next move is to put a 93-97 nose on my 98. I"m just waiting for someone to hit me so they pay for paint job.

 

 

This topic's pretty old

Disconnect the negative cable from the battery and wait 10 minutes before messing around. The airbag sensors are yellow, but you need to undo the battery no matter what, NOT just play the "avoid the yellow things and hope I don't blow my head off my neck" game.

 

sheila i was thinking today and realized that you cannot use the 98-2002 dash unless you change the wires for the gauge cluster. the gauge cluster wont read properly in a 96. It's best to change the plastic piece under steering wheel, change center console to a black 93-97, change dash glove box, change carpet, door panels, headliner,kicker panels, seats and steering wheel. And then sand and prime and paint the dash black. The best chance for a dash swap is to try a 97 lt1 gauge cluster. But i'm sure that probably won't work.